By Aram Roston, NBC News Producer
High oil prices mean a windfall in revenue for Iraq's government, but the Iraqis have failed to spend all that money properly on the country's infrastructure, according to new report by the Government Accountability Office. Indeed, the Iraq government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had almost $30 billion in unspent funds in its coffers at the end of last year.
That is in spite of the billions spent on reconstruction by the U.S. The GAO report, released Tuesday, is the most up to date analysis so far of Iraq's oil wealth and spending. It is subtitled "Iraqi Revenues, Expenditures, and Surplus."
And the GAO says that 2008 will bring record revenue to Iraq, of up to $79.2 billion in oil revenue. But inspite of all the infrastructure problems, the GAO says that Iraq's government may have as much as $50 billion unspent at the end of the year.
The GAO says violence is only one of the factor in why Iraq's oil money has remained unspent, even as U.S. taxpayer funds of almost $50 billion have been appropriated by the U.S. Congress.
The GAO's director of International Affairs and Trade, Joseph A. Christoff, says the study shows that "Iraq has to step up to the plate and spend on its own infrastructure."
From 2005 to 2007, the report found that Iraq earned $90 billion in oil sales. This year's sales may almost equal that total, a result of increased oil pumping and sky high prices.
The problem, the GAO found, was that Iraq was unable to spend it's money. It spent only 25% of what it budgeted on infrastructure, Christoff told NBC News. Part of the problem was that it did not have the staff or the systems to actually account funds properly.
Funding is urgently needed, officials have said, to build up Iraq's deteriorated infrastructure.
